Cookies, candies, chocolates and pie.  That’s a formula for a “sugar high” this holiday season. But add festive cocktails and other alcoholic beverages to the mix and you’ve got the makings of what some experts call a “sugar hangover.”

According to USA Today, while you might feel a burst of energy immediately after eating sweet foods, chances are you will feel miserable later.

“You can’t have the high without the crash,” says Melanie Murphy Richter, a Los Angeles-based nutritionist, who says that a sugar hangover can “feel just as bad or even worse” than the real one. When you eat processed foods that are full of sugar, your body releases glucose into the bloodstream, signaling the release of insulin to move that sugar from your blood into your cells. This gives you that burst of energy. But what often follows is that the sugar builds up in your blood, causing headaches, fatigue, and thirst in some people, says Richter.

Eating more sugar than the body can handle sends your pancreas into overdrive, releasing so much insulin that you experience a dramatic drop in blood sugar. Drinking milkshakes or sugary cocktails will rev up the process even sooner because anything in liquid form is digested faster.

To avoid the sugar hangover, fill up on foods rich in protein, fiber, and fat before indulging in sweets, says Richter. “This will significantly slow down the uptake of that glucose by a long shot,” she says. Try to get some exercise after eating a lot of sugar because your muscles will be able to use that fuel for energy, reducing the insulin spike that causes those hangover-like symptoms.

Try some healthier, holiday dessert recipes from the Food Network that will help you indulge without guilt — or a sugar hangover.